SAWASDEE 2

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Congratulations!!! Good to get some great feedback on the ongoing process at the embassy. We are just waiting for the interview date now and it's on the way since they called my fiancee to confirm her address and tell her it was on the way. I am curious as to what documents you had with you to show the relationship. I have already gathered up a ton of stuff since we have been together just short of 3 years and I could give them over 600 emails or more if I wanted to freak them out and probably over 1000 SMS's and chats. But just a good idea of how many of each thing you provided to them would be good to know.

[symbiosis 0]

We finished our interview a few hours ago and WE'RE APPROVED!!!! To give you all an overview of the embassy experience... We got there at 6:45am and ended up being the last couple called up to interview. We were quite worried as when we got there and presented our documents the lady was giving us a hard time about a copy of one of her sons birth certificates vs. the original... the boy isn't coming over with this visa so we didn't think it was a problem having a copy of the BC and a copy of his passport, she insisted we needed the original and I insisted it shouldn't matter since he's not coming on this visa that we would present the original on the K-2 later in a couple years. She just told us to have a seat until her name was called, 11:30am her name was finally called, the longest near 5 hour wait I've ever endured... especially after her giving us a hard time, all I could think was there was gonna be an RFE which would screw up the travel plans I already made for her. The interview was about 15-20 mins... seemed like an eternity as I sat and listened to the interviewer question her. Pretty simple stuff, "where did you meet him? When did you meet him? How do you communicate and how often? How many times has he visited you? What were you doing when you met him? Was he on vacation at the time? How long did you spend together the first time you met? Has he visited again since? How many times and when? Do you plan to marry him in the US?" That's all the questions I recall them asking her, pretty easy stuff. Glad I was able to come to help present the documents early in the morning at least as that was really hectic, too bad I couldn't actually stand up there with her for the interview itself... but it all worked out well and he told us to come back on Friday the 18th at 3pm to pick up the visa and her passport, I nearly screamed and jumped out of my seat as I heard those words... "pick up your visa", but I restrained myself to a quiet "hell yeah!" and a little air punch. The lady who was doing the Thai translation for the interview looked at me and laughed a bit as I did that. That was a hell of a relief! They handed us all of our original documents and evidence short of the required forms and her passport (which I didn't think they would do) and sent us on our way with our appointment card to pick up the visa. We'll be here in Bangkok until the evening of the 21st, then we head to the states together finally!!!!!

Good luck to the rest of you! I will note to you all that of the other 7 fiancee visa applicants there with us, all were approved! Just to give you all some piece of mind. I know this because there is zero privacy in that place and you hear every conversation of every case going through the loudspeaker since they're behind glass. But it was good to hear everyone getting their visas even with a couple of us getting a slightly hard time up front about our documents(including one couple who didn't have the DS157 since they're lawyer forgot to give it to them). So don't stress too much since they seem to be willing to bend a bit if you present everything you can give them and then some and just have patience. Also note to those of you out there just getting started, I used no lawyer on this... so yes, you can do it yourself if you have a lot of patience to read things over and over again.

Chok Dii Krap!!

Steve & Bualai

Congrats! I'm glad to hear everything went (more or less) smoothly. I had the unfortunate experience of my Noi being denied a tourist visa there (once when I was with her, once on her own). But that was before I realized those visas are very hard to get -- especially for a poor farm girl. I really hope it goes this well for us with the K-1!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Yes, tourist visas are very hard to get over there even if you have some money in the bank and you have no doubt the person will return to Thailand. I think it is mostly a money making gimmick for the US. It does not seem fair that we let so many other countries in here, even some that don't need a visa to come visit, and we boast of having 175 years of friendship with Thailand and we treat them like ####### when they want to come visit. So what if a few stay here illegally!! Look at all the people from Mexico and other countries down there that are here and we still pretty much do nothing about it. Oh, well. Hope your visa goes well too.

[Jessica&Lute 0]

Congrats Steve on getting the visa!!!! It's good to hear some recent first-hand knowledge of how the interview went. In the past I think USCs could approach the window at interview time with their SO, but it's interesting to hear that that has changed.

By the way, we finally got our NOA2 on Monday!! So I feel like I'm graduating from the March VSC Filer's thread and will be spending more time over here now that things will be going through the BKK Embassy pretty soon... It feels really good to be done with that first stage of the process!!!!!

[Kang Lang 7]

first congrats to steve and bualai...that's wonderful, enjoy a safe flight back to the U.S.!

hey symbiosis: don't worry about the denial of tourist visas prior it has no bearing on your approval. My (now) husband had 2 successful tourist visa to see me for 3 months each and 2 denials although the CO did ask him about it and didn't care for his answer so she switched to english and asked me about it. it turned out fine and we were approved, visa picked up 48 hours later.

[Thai family 0]

Congratulations, Steve and Bualai!

I'm going to send the kids your post. Their interview is a week from today, and I hope it ends as well as yours.

Best wishes on your life together.

Thai Mom

[birch- phuk_beer 0]

Congrats "Huge", and thanks for the great report.....

[George-Joom 0]

Congrats Steve on getting the visa!!!! It's good to hear some recent first-hand knowledge of how the interview went. In the past I think USCs could approach the window at interview time with their SO, but it's interesting to hear that that has changed.

By the way, we finally got our NOA2 on Monday!! So I feel like I'm graduating from the March VSC Filer's thread and will be spending more time over here now that things will be going through the BKK Embassy pretty soon... It feels really good to be done with that first stage of the process!!!!!

Jessica and Lute

Graduating....I like that. I feel the same way.

I have been "lurking" here every day...gathering alot of good info.

We were approved on June 23 but Joom wants to complete a class in England so she won't be returning to Thailand until the end of August. Our petition expires Oct 23 so we will probably have to get an extension.

Anybody know if there will be a problem?

Thanks much

George and Joom

[Tom and Teaw 1]

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the embassy emailed me and said they sent my fiancee Packet 4 on the 15th and told me the interview date is August 21st at 7:30 am. So now the fun begins!! I have to get my trip planned now.

[Devkpaik 1]

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the embassy emailed me and said they sent my fiancee Packet 4 on the 15th and told me the interview date is August 21st at 7:30 am. So now the fun begins!! I have to get my trip planned now.

CONGRATS HUGE316! CONGRATS TOM AND WARIYA!

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Thanks Littleasianman. Finally. And they told me to just have her bring her daughter's papers with her and not mail them in. But I'll be there anyway.

[Thai family 0]

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the embassy emailed me and said they sent my fiancee Packet 4 on the 15th and told me the interview date is August 21st at 7:30 am. So now the fun begins!! I have to get my trip planned now.

Have fun planning that trip, Tom. August 21st will be here before you know it. I talked to the kids tonight and they say everything is ready for the interview in six days. My son's definition of 'ready' and mine are not the same. My DIL says she is organized - good for her!

[Thai family 0]

We were approved on June 23 but Joom wants to complete a class in England so she won't be returning to Thailand until the end of August. Our petition expires Oct 23 so we will probably have to get an extension.

Anybody know if there will be a problem?

Thanks much

George and Joom

It sounds like you will have a fair amount of time between her returning to Thailand and the expiration. If it does become a problem just contact the embassy. In my understanding, getting a petition extended is not a problem.

Thai Mom

[Thai family 0]

LittleAsianMan,

Did your fiance get that visa yet? I have been waiting to hear the news. My DIL is to pick up her police report the 23rd, the day before her interview. Hopefully there will be no hitches. My son will be with her, but that may or may not be a good thing.

[Tom and Teaw 1]

Thai mom, I was supposed to go in June for 3 weeks but she wanted me to cancel and save the money and come for the interview, which I had planned to do anyway. So now I will get online with her and work out the dates for arriving in time to make sure all is in order before the interview and we will plan the trip to Phuket with her daughter while school is out. Never been to Phuket in any of my 8 other trips to see my lady so it should be interesting.